As a crimp terminal to be secured to a distal end of a wire, there is widely known the type of crimp terminal which includes crimping pieces for crimping a conductor of the wire exposed from an insulative sheath, and fixing pieces for crimping the insulative sheath. The crimping pieces as well as the fixing pieces are formed on and extend respectively from opposite side edges of a continuous bottom plate. The fixing pieces are press-deformed inwardly to fix the insulative sheath of the wire in an embracing manner. The crimping pieces are press-deformed inwardly to crimp the conductor in an embracing manner.
In the crimp terminal of this structure, a pressing force applied to the conductor of the wire when the crimping pieces are press-deformed is influenced by the amount of press-deforming of the crimping pieces, that is, the amount of plastic deformation of the crimping pieces. Therefore, for example, when the amount of plastic deformation of the crimping pieces is inadequate, the area of contact between the crimping pieces and the conductor is reduced, so that an electrical resistance increases, which leads to a possibility that an electrical trouble may occur.
PTL 1 discloses a structure in which an electrically-conductive coating agent such as an electrically-conductive paste in a liquid state or a semi-solid state, electrically-conductive oil or the like is coated on inner surfaces of crimping pieces not yet press-deformed inwardly and also on surfaces of a plurality of core wires exposed from a wire, and in this condition the crimping pieces are press-deformed inwardly to crimp the core wires, so that the coating agent is filled in a space formed between the inner surfaces of the crimping pieces and the core wires. With this construction, the electrically-conductive coating agent serves to decrease the electrical resistance between the crimp terminal and the wire, and therefore the electrical resistance can be kept to a low level regardless of a variation in the amount of plastic deformation of the crimping pieces.
As the coating agent thus coated on the connected portions of the wire and terminal, etc., there is known one in a liquid state or a semi-solid state which comprises a matrix resin and an electrically-conductive filler as an auxiliary component, as shown in PTL 2. As the matrix resin, there are known a photo-curing resin and an electron radiation curing resin which are cured respectively by irradiation of light and by irradiation of an electron beam.